Well, 2011 is over in my ML, and I failed to beat AC Milan in the European Cup Final
. In truth, my performance was mediocre and with two goals from a player named Kaiser (think he is a classic player but don't know who he is), Milan cruised to a fairly comfortable victory. They were so strong in 2011 that they only lost a single game, and drew three times. In both my league meetings with them, it was 0-0. I finished 2nd by about 13 points. Juve, having come on strong late in the season, finished 3rd a short way behind me, with Roma, Inter and Parma making up the rest of the European spots. Liverpool won the Premier League by a few points ahead of Man Utd, Bayern were 13 points clear of Wolfsburg in their league, and I can't remember who won the fourth league, though there were 17 points between first and second (it is the weakest league; I neglected to put the Spanish League in when I started so it is just a mix of the worst miscellaneous Euro teams). So AC Milan won Serie A, the Coppa Italia (vs Roma) and the European Cup. It was the second year running that they won the league and domestic cup. Would they be as unstoppable in 2012?
2012
Thankfully, it would seem not; AC Milan have thus far been
good, but not close to the near perfection of 2011. First though let me detail my transfers; after Ceciu retired, I bought a regen Minanda. I then got an unexpected offer from Rosenborg, who are struggling a bit in one of the lesser leagues, for Ordaz. Now, the spaniard is a fine finisher, but he has nevertheless not been a firm favourite with me, he just isn't quite the type of forward I am looking for, and given that Vialli is still going rather strong I couldn't envisage him taking over as my starting striker anytime soon. Moreover, when I have played him he hasn't been prolific in the league, though he has a great record in European competition, scoring 23 goals for me over the years (in total I calculated that he scored 62 in all competitions for me, over seven seasons). Ordaz is in his prime, so I decided to let him go to a club where he will surely be first choice. This freed up another slot for a future prospect, so I signed 22 year old Roberto Baggio; I anticipate players like Mancini, Gullit, Cerezo and Platt all retiring at a similar point or becoming too old for regular first team football, so another AMF/SS/CF will be a useful asset. Not to mention I hate seeing Baggio, above all stars, go unused.
Onto the new season then. I started well, beating Juve 2-0 in the opening game. After about seven games I was the only unbeaten side, enjoying more consistency in my starting line up thanks to not having to go through the qualifying group stage for the European Cup. AC Milan had drawn a match and then lost to Messina (!!!) immediately before they faced me, so I was at the top of the league. I, however, was wobbling a bit myself, having drawn 2-2 with newly promoted Cagliari the week before. My match with Milan started well, with me gradually making better chances until I scored midway through the first half. Unfortunately I made a very sloppy pass later with Di Tomasso in defence, and very soon after Milan scored through Gilardino. Interestingly it was his first goal since the opening day, when he had scored 4 against Lecce. I was very annoyed at myself after this, and never quite got back into a rhythm, and AC scored a second later on.
I was furious with myself for this missed opportunity, but fortunately AC Milan continued to stumble with the occasional draw, and lost for a second time, on this occasion to Udinese. Things were going well for me in the cups too; I beat Udinese comfortably in the first round of the Coppa Italia, and started well in the Euro group by beating Arsenal 3-0 at home. I had a couple of tricky games, a draw here and a loss there, but luck was generally on my side (1-1 with Fiorentina straight after the Milan game in the 90th minute, but Vialli scored two late goals to give me the win. The first one was fortunate but looked cool; his first shot was saved, then he hits the rebound in a very steep lob shot with lots of curl, totally by accident on my part, and it falls gracefully into the net). I ended the first half of the season at the top of the league, 3 points clear of Milan. I won my first leg in the Coppa Italia quarter final against Roma, 2-1.
I had no room or inclination to acquire new players, so after the turkey and sprouts my squad returned unchanged to beat Juve 3-0. Now an interesting thing about Juve; in my first two or three seasons in the top flight, Del Piero was the league top scorer (Capocannoniere) almost every time, but then he dropped off the top scorer list. He began featuring in the side less too, when I faced them. Nowadays he is 37, so it is perhaps no surprise that he isn't considered worthy of a starting spot, albeit his peers such as Trezeguet and Ibrahimovic are getting on a bit as well. But last year Bamogo joined Juve. I had vaguely been aware of the name, I had seen him in previous playthroughs at some French club or other, but he hadn't made a big impression on me. When I play against him, he doesn't seem much of a threat for Juve and hasn't scored against me. But I checked his stats, and he is obscenely fast- around 95 on speed and acceleration, and the same for both dribbling stats. I don't know how good he starts off, it might be purely down to excessive development over the years of this ML (a downside to playing a long ML on PES 5 is that loads of players end up ridiculously good, especially in terms of speed), but having tried to ascertain his real life identity I think he was Habib Bamogo. Judging by his wiki entry, he seems to have had a decent if unspectacular career, punctuated by loan spells between a couple of extended periods at good clubs, without ever appearing exceptional. It's strange though how a player with such outrageously good stats isn't necessarily a great player in the hands of the AI. Maybe it is the formation Juve play, I don't know.
Anyway, I have played a few more league games in early winter, and am top of the league still. I unfortunately got knocked out of the Coppa Italia against Roma for the second year running; the second leg was a close fought affair, but after a late miss by Gullit Roma soon scored through Corvia. Minutes from the end they played a ball into the box which Castolo managed to intercept to deny a striker, only to run it into the goal himself. I was out! Obviously it had been a possiblity after the 2-1 win at home, but I had played well enough and came close to scoring numerous times. Never mind, I soon after won my Euro Group; I lost the second match to Arsenal 1-0 but won all my other games against Monaco and Rangers (Rangers finished bottom, rarely getting thrashed but losing every match). Arsenal went through with me. Newcastle, who have bought a regen Shearer to accompany Eusebio and co, won another group, whereas Inter had another poor go in the European Cup and didn't qualify for the knockout rounds. Juve and Roma did though, and I think AC Milan too. A couple of weeks after that loss to Roma in the cup, I had one of my biggest wins of the year against them in the league. It was 1-1 until twelve minutes from the end, when Dodo scored from inside the area. Then the floodgates opened; a free kick was driven in low into the six yard box from a wide position, and Dodo's shot was well saved by Pipolo, who turned it round the post. But the reprieve was very brief, with Ettori scoring a header from the corner, Dodo from another for his second, and Cerezo from the spot after a terrible challenge by Roma. The corner goals were no surprise; earlier in the game Valeny had narrowly missed when he crashed a volley off the bar, having been left free by Roma's defenders. Two or three seasons ago he scored 4 times in the league, but since then I don't think he's scored at all, though he does get these chances from time to time.
For the two newly promoted sides, Benfica, and Cagliari, things are not going well. They are 15th and 16th respectively. Poor Macco! A few places higher up the league are Messina, who have a talented attacking midfielder named Lorne, though sometimes Fouque stands in for him (I sold him a few years back). Rosenborg aren't doing well in their league, unfortunately. Sad to see my sold players not faring so well.
Mancini has been a bit goal shy recently, but playing well, and Vialli has been scoring quite freely. He already has 8 league goals despite two or three very short spells of injury, one more than he managed in his injury ridden 2011 campaign. I have been playing better in attack this year, which has led to more penalties- my chief taker Cerezo netted 5 times last year, but this time already has 8 goals, and I think they might all have been from the spot. I think the increase in penalties has been partly luck, as well. Last year it often seemed blatant trips and violent body checks were going unpunished, while this time around I have sometimes been brushed by an opposing defender, having already loosed a shot, and been awarded a penalty. I won't complain! I'm having more fun with Ostwaut as he matures into a capable player, and Ettori too is a midfielder I relish putting in when Platt or Cerezo are tired, even though the Frenchman is still very young. Celnili is a useful player in all central midfield areas, though he lacks the finesse of the aforementioned personnel. I'm even getting useful regular service out of Iouga, when he stands in for Dodo, despite him being 39 and his stats worse than ever. Like Ceciu, I seem able to get good performances out of him despite him being very limited in ability. Maybe the formation suits him.
Espimas will retire this year; like Iouga he is 39. After long years of service on the right flank, he has never become the regular scorer of goals that I had hoped, but still has respectable pace and the lungs of a horse (modern medicine is marvellous). His departure though will mean more playing time for Giersen when Gullit or Ximilez aren't fit. I have two other talented subs for these roles, German Rottger and Jol Peruma, who can play as wingers too.
or 
depending on the game version you use. IE in my case EU PES games when i press enter it does a short pass or does the marking.
. I think that will rule Vialli out of the first ten games of next season!!!!